It’s 6:00 AM here in Columbus. I’m delivering the closing keynote at the Ohio Workforce 411 Conferencein about 6 hours.
Couldn’t sleep last night. I was too excited about the article in the the Wall Street Journal by Jeffrey Zaslow called “First Impressions Get Faster.”
I WAS going to share the link to the article in this blog post, but I couldn’t view the online text unless I became a subscriber. Damn it.
So, thanks to the guy in room #1133 (sorry Mr. Shehzad, I’ll return your stolen paper as soon as I finish this!) here’s a few excerpts from the article which can be found in the Thursday, Feb 16th, 2006 issue; page D4, Personal Journal Section:
“Sure, humans have always made snap judgments. But as our culture swirls faster and faster, first impressions are being indulged at hyper speed…”
“In St. Louis, Scott Ginsberg, 26 years old, is now testing theories about first impressions. For more than 5 years, every day, he has worn a nametag that says, ‘HELLO, my name is Scott.’ The former marketing student says the nametag allows people to develop a first impression of him in seconds. His goal is to appear friendly and more approachable, and to tap into those instincts of others. Women who mock or ignore him probably aren’t right for him, he says. But those who engage in conversation about the nametag learn things about him that lead beyond first impressions.”
“‘I’ll always wear the nametag. It’s a lifelong experiment,’ vows Mr. Ginsberg, who now gives lectures to corporations on ‘approachability.’ He’s concerned that the first impression window keeps narrowing. ‘It’s like an asymptotic calculus equation. Will it eventually approach zero?'”
The entire article is great. It’s filled with other fascinating, cutting edge research on first impressions. Pick up a copy today and share it with everyone at your office!
Alright, I better get back to room #1133 before Mr. Shazhad wakes up and realizes that some guy wearing a nametag on his pajamas just stole…er, borrowed his copy of the Wall Street Journal. Not a good first impression!
(If you want to see a scanned image of the entire article, click here)
LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Is the first impression window narrowing as our culture accelerates?
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Scott Ginsberg
Author/Speaker/That guy with the nametag
www.hellomynameisscott.com
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